Friday, January 27, 2012

When I was a kid growing up in one of the sprawling suburbs on Australia's east coast, our summer started for us kids on the Labor Day Long Weekend which is celebrated on the first weekend in October and from that weekend on it was Stubbies (a popular kind of shorts), thongs (double pluggers), surf, sand, sunburn, Beach Boys tunes and girls. This Australian rite of passage usually continued right up until Easter Long Weekend. Yes, those were the lazy halcyon days of my youth.

What happened to summer?

Last year we had a late start to summer with the warmer weather not really kicking in till the week before Christmas and playing out until late April. Once again this year we have had a late to our summer, with the warmer weather waiting until New Years to bless us. Even then it has been a patchy start to 2012, with a few hot days in between the dominant southerly air stream, that have bought patchy showers and cooler temperatures. To emphasise the point, December 2011 was the coldest recorded in 50 years with an average mean temperature of just 19.9º and with only an average 6.7 hours per day, down from the usual 7.9 hours, which added to the gloom.

What happened to summer?

But it is not all doom and gloom, I don't think I have ever seen my garden looking so lush and verdant at this time of year ... ever! Usually by January the gardens are really struggling, as the moisture evaporates with hand watering and heavy mulching the only way that the avid gardener can keep his garden from desiccating before their eyes. However, not this summer, the whole garden is alve with new growth, especicially the frangipanis which are producing flowers en masse, the like I have never seen before.

What happened to summer?

Although my garden is in picture perfect condition, a wet summer has its drawbacks as well, like the vines in the Pokolbin vineyards area not setting the fruit, which could lead to a smaller crop and a poorer vintage this season. Another drawback is the lack of beach days, where I get to spend lazy days reading good books and soaking up the sun on some of Australia best suburban beaches and worrying about how to keep my camera free of sand. But not this summer, beach days have been a rare event and movies have been the preferred weekend outing.

What happened to summer?

So what happened to summer, I don't know, perhaps next year we'll get one .... and then we can complain about the drought, bushfires, water restrictions and a brown lawn.